Thunder and fear
by Sonnie Celanna
Summary: A thunderstorm has been interrupting an otherwise peaceful night in Japan and one of the people whose sleep has been interrupted by it is Tsuyu Asui. Any frustration she may have had overr it though would quickly dissipate when she found a familiar greenette out side, crying and cowering. Taking him inside, she learns about his fear of thunderstorms...and a little more...


BOOM! Patter, patter, patter, RUMBLE! BOOM!

Asui yawned as she tried to ignore the thunderstorm raging outside that had awakened her. She knew it would be pointless trying to return to the bliss of unconsciousness.

Rubbing sleep out her eye she pressed the ground floor button on the elevator. She had checked her phone to see it was 2 in the morning, so most everyone would be asleep by now.

Ding!

Stepping out the elevator she walked towards the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water, supressing her urge to yawn again. Taking a sip of the cold water she turned to make her way back to her room when she heard an odd noise among the ambient noise of rain.

Patter, Patter, BOOM

And then.

"AHH!"

"Ribbit?!" Her eyes widened in surprise at the voice, recognizing it. She quickly rushed over, as it had come from outside and opened the door. Looking down she saw a boy with green hair and completely soaked clothes curled up in a ball on the steps, whimpering quietly.

Even amongst the rain, the frog girl could see her friend's tears rolling down his cheeks. "Midoriya?"

"A-Asui?" The boy asked quietly as he opened his eyes looking up. The girl quickly crouched down, gently setting her hand on the boys arm.

BOOM!

The green haired boy jumped and wrapped himself tighter into the ball he was in, eyes shut tight. "You're afraid of lightning? Ribbit."

The boy just whimpered but very faintly he shook his head. "T...Thunder."

The frog girl croaked quietly upon hearing that and placed a hand on the greenette's shoulder, slowly coaxing him into a standing position.

"Come on Midoriya. Let's get you inside." She said as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. 'I really hope he wasn't out there to long, i don't want him to get sick.'

She lead the boy onto the couch and sat beside him. A part of her wanted to go back to her room to get a blanket but the image of his whimpering form stuck in her head, making her unwilling to leave him, so she settled for awkwardly hugging him and hoping her natural warmth was enough.

"Why were you outside anyways? Ribbit." Asui questioned as she pulled out her phone to text Mina and Jirou.

"I...i've been having n-nightmares for a while. Since All Might...since he l-lost his power." Midoriya admitted quietly, eyes staring blankly ahead. A sad smile then found its way onto the boys face. "I...i thought fresh air would h-help. I ran from one of my fears just for a-another to rear its h-had. There's a...metaphor in their s-somewhere... I think."

Asui frowned as she listened to her friend, she did not like hearing him without his usual nervous joyful energy. Unfortunately, she wasn't really qualified at dealing with him.

The thought actually made her kind of sad. She'd been his friend longer than most of the girls, barring Uraraka and yet...she was probably the least useful at actually helping him, besides maybe Hagakure.

"Do you want to go see Mina? Or Jirou?" The green eyed girl asked, knowing the boy's girlfriends would probably already know about this fear and what to do.

"No...they...all the g-girls are normally asleep by now. It's just me and Tokoyami who're usually up at this hour and he prefers to be left alone at night. I d-don't want to interrupt t-their sleep for something stupid." Midoriya said, and the frog girl instinctively wrapped her arms tighter around him.

"it's not stupid, ribbit." She assured him quietly. "Everyone has fears. It's just human."

Midoriya didn't respond, leaving the two to dwell on their thoughts in silence. As she did, a disturbing thought crossed her mind and she turned her full focus on to the boy.

"Was it Bakugou?"

"huh?"

"Is Bakugou the reason you're scared of thunder? The loud bangs? Ribbit."

She asked quietly but seriously. No answer came, and yet that proved answer enough, making her sigh sadly.

The greenette sighed as well, rolling up his sleeve past his elbow and flinching as he did so. Why revealed itself pretty quickly as she saw a burn mark that was clearly old and past the point of healing.

"I know you're not all past the point of forgiveness yet, so i wanted to avoid showing anyone this but...this was the worst Kacchan ever did. I was...i didn't go back to school for a month."

"Midoriya..."

"The first few days were because i was in hospital. We were young so there wasn't much punishment given for it at all. But i don't think most people would of cared until i got to U.A anyways. The rest of the month...i was scared to go back. Even to this day..."

The unchareletsically melancholy teen sighed as a heavy silence pierced the air, Asui completely unsure how to respond. When Midoriya opened his mouth again, she truly couldn't have predicted the words about to come out his mouth.

"you're one of them."

"Ribbit?"

"My fears...mu nightmares. I see All Might losing his power, Iida being pinned down by Stain, Shigaraki's hand on my neck, seconds from killing me, muscular stomping towards Kota...just a kid...we're all just kids..."

Midoriya let out a quiet chocked sob that broke the frog girls heart.

"And...in it...it all. I can see you, at the USJ, Shigaraki coming at us. I...it's like i had a premonition that day, i saw what happened if...if Aizawa hadn't stopped him. My mind showed me so clearly...and i still see it in my dreams. The worst part is knowing i could of stopped it, but if Aizawa hadn't done anything, i would of been to froze up..."

Asui held her friend tight and shook her head lightly, trying not to focus on the events herself knowing her friend needed her. "You couldn't have, there was nothing we could do with him right on top of us, ribbit."

"I could of tried. Even if Nomu stopped me, it would of distracted him, it would of saved you."

"It would have gotten you killed." Asui corrected, only to be startled by Midoriya's own response.

"Would that have really been that bad? So many people wanted me dead anyways..."

Asui decided in that moment, if she ever saw the league of villains or even the boys old classmates, there would be hell to pay.

"It would be a bad thing. If you weren't here, Todoroki would still be only using his right side, Kota would be dead, we'd never have our friend. Please don't ever say that, please..."

"I'm sorry...everything's just..."

He didn't finish. He didn't need to. Asui just leaned back intk the couch, still hugging him.

"Tsu?"

"hm?"

"Please just...stay with me for now?"

"Of course. Ribbit."

He didn't see it but the frog girls eyes lit up with a brief reprieve of happiness. 'He finally called me Tsu by himself.'

The two were silent from then on, eventually falling asleep. If anyone walked in om the two snuggled up together the next morning, well no one admitted it.


End file.
